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Jazzman's 3D animation thread: UPDATE: I got a job animating games!

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Yeah my friend who does physics at uni seemed appalled that I didn't know this, but I didn't think anybody would want to see an updated video with them falling at the same speed.

I'll make add some of those changes to the ball one now and see how it looks. I agree that it slows down too much going up the hill, I spent a while trying to get a balance without having the change the scene but I might just have to.

Hey guys, I ripped the model for this half life guy, re-rigged and re-skinned him, and here's the first little test I did (Kind of sick of making animations with the stick guy because your mind automatically expects a stick man to move like a cartoon)

I'm not sure what it is, but something about the wieght on the follow through for the punch looks off to me.

Like, too mechanical. Maybe it's because after the punch is delivered his left shoulder just locks into place in space and doesn't move at all. Actually, his whole left side of his torso doesn't follow through. Or seem to. His left arm should swing forward a bit after delivering a blow like that. His left shoulder should go further forward. And neither should stop at the same time as one another. Hope that helps.

For the punch, the most important parts are the antic and follow through. You should shorten the number of frames (increase the speed) during the part where the punch follows the antic and arrives at the destination.

Additionally, you seem to have an unnecessary pose following the punch, where the fist curls around and wraps into the chest. Think about what your character is doing. The punch pure momentum, and when it strikes it's target, how much of that momentum is left? Where is your character going once the target has been hit? how much recovery time is needed to gain control of that limb once it's been whipped out? Does your animation show the character attempting to gain control of the limb?

Don't hesitate to act it out and try to identify the key storytelling poses within the action. Try to imagine your curve editor; which lines continue onward in smooth succession (illusion of momentum?) and which lines bend abruptly to represent impact or jarring motions?

Hey, you're right about the curling arm at the end, although I think part of the problem in that video, is that I accidentally deleted the older one which showed it from different angles, and its not actaully a 'strait' punch, its a hook, and a lot of that is lost from that angle. Having said that though is is pretty wack at the end, I'm not sure if that punch will actually make it into the reel, but it's working in game and I will definately fix it up in case I want to use it when I start putting all this together.

I'm working on some Prince of Persia/Assasins Creed platforming stuff at the moment alongside some little ball momentum tests, will have some stuff to show pretty soon and I'll post a better punch too.

I think you're too worried about your gestures being illegible during animation due to being too quick, you'll be amazed with how the human mind can "animate" its own in-betweens from one keyframe to another (I basically mean you can show someone the first keyframe, then the second keyframe, and their mindseye will fill in the rest). Like Creambun 007 suggested, you can shorten the number of frames in some parts. Try to be more loose with your characters follow-through too in the more powerful animations, you had a great thing going in your first post with the looney running cycle (if you compare that run cycle with your combine run cycle, you can really see the difference in "power" behind the gesture).

That doesn't mean that your combine run cycle is bad, its still very good in a more realistic context, but a little exaggeration could give your realistic animations a bit more "umph".

You may be right, I thought I'd covered that though b/c the one on the right drops a lot faster than the one on the left.

...

You do realize that an object's weight has no bearing on the speed of its fall, right? A lead ball would fall just as fast as a hollow plastic one.

Can someone please elaborate on this?

I mean, we all grew up on earth and not in a vacuum. Since air resistance has a greater impact on objects with less mass, we all assume the bowlingball drops faster than the football.

True, air resistance does play its part, but, first of all, it's not as dramatic as jazz's demo would indicate, and to be perfectly honest, i'd say shape and surface area affect air resistance's role in the speed at which things fall than mass; a 20-pound parachute is going to fall slower than a 5-pound spear. For objects the same size, one of the objects would have to be quite light for air resistance to affect its rate of fall enough to be noticeable; 5- and 10-pound balls are, to most observers, going to hit the ground at the same time.

Thanks for the feedback BlightedArt, looks like I haven't checked the thread for a few days so I missed your reply.

Yeah I definitely feel like there's a balance to strike between realistic and exaggerated, because just looking at a run animation out of context, the bouncy, heavy one is going to be more interesting every time, built you don't want to see that in the trenches of Killzone 2 or whatever, I will try doing some of those kind of basic animations with a bit of a middle ground feel and see how they come out

dude. it doesn't seem like you're really listenign to the feedback people are giving you.

Ok, fair enough. You're saying I should stop all this full body motion stuff and stick with ball bounces yes?

I'm honestly not trying to ignore criticism in the slightest, I really try to reply to people and take on feedback.

I guess I'm not doing a very good job. I'm going to stop posting these things and go completely with the basic stuff ok?

I would just say, let's take the run cycle I did up there for example. Could you actually give some feedback on this kind of thing? What's wrong with the cycle? What basics am I missing? This is not me being an asshole about this in the slightest, I honestly want to know these things because the feedback I get is quite limited and I want, I don't know, motivation to encourage me to go and bounce a ball again.

I wanna totally stress that this feedback is welcomed and needed. Can you comment on those two specific videos? It would be very useful because obviously one is 'back to basics' and one is 'getting ahead of yourself, you're ignoring everything'

Sorry for not responding with more stuff recently. I've been busy with moving and stuff.

The main problem I'm seeing with all your clips of a human figure is that they look very... robotic. Move from one pose to the next. Like moving is a step by step process to them. This is very apparent in your acrobatic video. Which, while being a good run through, just seems very wooden, with the weight not being there at points.

I think for the most part you have the bouncing ball stuff down. What I think you need to work on more is more of this:

For some reason the tail just doesn't seem right to me. It looks like it's stopping way too fast considering how much it lags when it's dragged through the air. In other words, when being dragged it looks like the end of the tail is rather light. But when it swings, it looks like it's rather heavy. Figuring out how to consistantly have the tail show the same weight is one of the points of the exercise.

I wish there was a way to visually comment on videos, but alas I don't know of one. If so I feel I might be able to help you a little more.

Anyway, once I get moved and settled and stuff, I plan on making a rig for max that's similar to the "legs attached to circle" rig from animation mentor for my own practice. If you want I'll e-mail it to you when it's done.

You may be right, I thought I'd covered that though b/c the one on the right drops a lot faster than the one on the left.

...

You do realize that an object's weight has no bearing on the speed of its fall, right? A lead ball would fall just as fast as a hollow plastic one.

Can someone please elaborate on this?

I mean, we all grew up on earth and not in a vacuum. Since air resistance has a greater impact on objects with less mass, we all assume the bowlingball drops faster than the football.

True, air resistance does play its part, but, first of all, it's not as dramatic as jazz's demo would indicate, and to be perfectly honest, i'd say shape and surface area affect air resistance's role in the speed at which things fall than mass; a 20-pound parachute is going to fall slower than a 5-pound spear. For objects the same size, one of the objects would have to be quite light for air resistance to affect its rate of fall enough to be noticeable; 5- and 10-pound balls are, to most observers, going to hit the ground at the same time.

ah ok, in my mind the difference between a lead ball and a plastic one was a lot bigger. Like, 300 grams <> 10 kg

Left foot pops/jitters on the slide back.
COG has a rotation pop on the weight transition as the foot touches down and begins to translate back.
When you translate your left foot back behind the body during the step, you have no ease in or out on the move. It comes very quick to a stop and immediately moves forward.
COG lifting back up after the foot touches down is too fast, makes it feel like a pop.

Your stuff is really coming along! Although there were a few parts that needed work, the combine obstacle course thing was pretty great! Great job on the leg animation you just posted up. I can already see you're spacing and timing are improving.

Hey guys. I want to work on this climbing animation until it's up to a very good standard, because it's going to be about 20 seconds or so of my first reel hopefully.

Here's a video of it with some changes and from 3D MAX rather than running from a game engine,

Tell me what could look cooler/better, what looks wierd etc. Specifics are muchos appreciated rather than general 'vibe' kind of crits. this piece needs to be really really good so I'll be working on it a lot.

Mhhh definitely. I struggled with how he was going to reach that last pole b/c it was quite a big jump, I think I'll keep the motion the same (the whole getting his knee on first bit) but I will make it look a lot heavier and more difficult, keep them coming!

Jazz, despite all the crits, I think you deserve some asspats for this stuff. So this is me, patting you on the ass......hmmm, y'know, it's a little bit flabby, you should probably think about doing some squats, tone it up a bit.

Thank you for the pat, I am physically aroused. I am trying very very hard to get good because I seriously intend to work at a games company and I can only do that by working harder than other people who want the same thing. ( I guess I was lying before when I said I was going to sleep, but I'm going for real this time!)